Gov. Brown praises Amazon center in San Bernardino

SAN BERNARDINO - Gov. Jerry Brown pointed to Amazon's recent opening of a distribution center in the city as a sign of improvement for California's job market.

Amazon opened the center near San Bernardino International Airport in October. The facility was the first of three distribution centers to open in the state following a sales tax compromise between Sacramento and the Seattle-based Amazon.

The deal included Amazon's agreement to build the centers in California. In exchange, Amazon received a one-year break in having to add sales taxes to online sales.

Brown pointed to South Korean electronics firm Samsung's decision to build a research facility in San Jose as well as Amazon's decision to build centers in San Bernardino and two other cities as successes in job creation and tax policy.

"We also leveled the field on Internet sales taxes, paving the way for over 1,000 jobs at new Amazon distribution centers in Patterson and San Bernardino and now Tracy," the governor said.

Amazon has yet to open the centers in Patterson or Tracy, company spokeswoman Kelly Cheeseman said.

Former Senate Minority Leader Bob Dutton, who represented a Rancho Cucamonga-based district, helped negotiate the deal between Amazon and state officials.

Although Amazon, at the time, did not guarantee that they would set up shop in the San Bernardino area, Dutton said he was confident during negotiations that they would choose the Inland Empire.

"We're tailor-made for them. I knew from my business experience, all I had to do was show them the door," he said.

Amazon's San Bernardino center employs more than 700 people, Cheeseman said. More than 1,000 people worked there during the holiday shipping season.

The online retailer's San Bernardino center encompasses nearly one million square feet. Dallas-based Hillwood Investment Properties developed the center as part of its Alliance California complex, which is built upon former Norton Air Force Base land.

Hillwood's current projects include a 480,000-square-foot building adjacent to Amazon's center that is being built for an undisclosed Fortune 100 company, senior vice president John Magness said.

That building is likely to be completed around March 1.

Hillwood is also building a distribution center in San Bernardino for Cott Beverage near the crossing of Mill Street and Mill Avenue.

The developer also plans construction work at the North San Bernardino Industrial Park in the second quarter of this year.